As the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse prepares to hand down its final report in December, Australian Catholic Church leaders have met with Vatican authorities.

The World Today speaks to the Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, who took part in the talks.

Duration: 9min 52sec

Broadcast:
Tue 10 Oct 2017, 12:27pm

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Featured: Mark Coleridge, Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane

Transcript

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THOMAS ORITI: As the Child Abuse Royal Commission prepares to hand down its final report, Catholic Church leaders in Australia have met with Vatican authorities.

A delegation including the archbishops of Melbourne and Brisbane have travelled to Rome to speak with senior figures, including the Vatican's Secretary of State - who reports directly to the Pope.

To discuss the meeting I spoke to the Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge.

But I began by asking him about the royal commission's findings, due in December, and what impact they're likely to have on the Catholic Church in Australia.

MARK COLERIDGE: The royal commission itself has had a huge impact and I don't doubt for a moment that, when the final report appears with its many volumes, some of which will refer to the Catholic Church obviously, that it will again have a huge impact.

And that will be ongoing, too, because this royal commission is going to have a very long tail and a powerful tail, so that the presentation of the report will not be the end of the story by any means.

And the impact will continue to be colossal because the whole experience has shaken the Catholic Church in Australia to the core. As one commentator said, it has broken the heart of the church in Australia; and I think that's true.

So that effect will continue and it is obviously anguishing and deeply painful, but at the same time it can be very fruitful.

And it was really that combination of pain and fruitfulness that we were discussing at the meeting in Rome.

THOMAS ORITI: You have spoken about the importance of greater authenticity within the Australian Catholic Church. What do you mean by that?

MARK COLERIDGE: In other words: being more faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's as simple and as profound as that.

And one of the strange things that has been happening is that both the royal commission and Pope Francis have been saying much the same kind of thing - obviously in vastly different idioms.

But both the voice of the Pope and the voice of the royal commission are simply summoning the Catholic Church in this country to be what we are called to be: in other words, faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ - because it's hard to imagine a greater of the Gospel of Jesus Christ than the abuse of the young.

Now, facing that and the abuse itself and its mis-handling: we hang our heads in shame, but we don't just hang our heads in shame.

We ask: what must be done? And that again is a question that the royal commission has put to us and will put to us very powerfully; but also a question that Pope Francis has been putting to the church in all kinds of ways.

And again, that question - what must be done, other than just hang our heads in shame? - was at the very heart of the discussions in Rome.

THOMAS ORITI: So let's talk about those talks at the Vatican. What was the aim of these talks?

MARK COLERIDGE: Really, it was an exchange of information. The people in Rome really wanted to hear from us, face-to-face, what we judged to be the truth of the situation of the church in this country at this time.

And as I said to them at the meeting: we are facing the greatest crisis that the Catholic Church has faced in Australia in its relatively brief history. There was no surprise in that for the people in the Vatican, because again they have been dealing with crises for a very long time and deal with crises around the world from day to day.

But for us, the crisis is very real. The word 'crisis' itself means we are under judgement: both secular and sacred judgement. And we have to respond to that judgement.

THOMAS ORITI: And in terms of some of the points raised, I understand that including women in positions of governance is a key issue. What's the importance of having women involved at the highest echelons of the Catholic Church?

MARK COLERIDGE: It's to draw upon all of the gifts of the Catholic Church: and women make up at least 50 per cent of the Catholic Church and have astonishing gifts.

So the question is: how can we allow the gifts to flourish for the building up of the church in new ways, in this new situation that we face?

That discussion began by a consideration of what's been called throughout the royal commission "clericalism:" in other words, decision-making being in the hands of too few - the ordained, all of whom are male and most of whom are celibate.

Now, again one has to ask - and the royal commission has put the question, but so too has the Pope: is this the best way for the church to flourish at this time? And in our judgement, here in Australia, we do have to include all kinds of people: women, obviously, but laymen as well; young and old.

In other words: we have to discern the gifts and bring those gifts into the decision-making process.

At the moment we have all kinds of people involved in the church at the point of management, and that's important. But there is an important distinction between management and governance.

And what we have to do, I think, now is to ask the question as creatively and as courageously as we can: how can we include the non-ordained, including women and even some young people, in the process of governance - in other words, making the decisions, not just implementing them?

THOMAS ORITI: Given that, we are hearing about a plenary council that's due to take place in 2020. What does that involve?

MARK COLERIDGE: Well, a plenary council is the most solemn, decision-making body that a church in a country can have.

This plenary council that we have finally decided to move towards will be a moment when we look the facts in the face: in other words, face the truth of our situation and on the basis of that we make bold decisions about the future.

Now, that may mean asking questions about what we have to let go, because at times our structures and strategies in the church in Australia are based upon the facts of other times. And even though they might have worked brilliantly once upon a time, they don't work brilliantly now.

There's no magic bullet in this situation but the plenary council will be a very important moment. In a sense, it's begun already because we are already preparing for it.

The plenary council isn't just an event: it's a process, a journey - and the journey has already begun with this period of preparation that will take us through to the plenary council.

And then there will be the next phase of the journey, with the implementation of those decisions.

And all of this is done in partnership with the Holy See. And at this meeting in Rome, that was one of the key questions: how can we in Rome work more effectively with you in Australia to bring the church in Australia beyond the crisis, into something better and stronger?

The other recognition that the meeting entailed was that what is going on in Australia doesn't concern just Australia. It does concern, in all kinds of ways, the church around the world.

THOMAS ORITI: Child sexual abuse is obviously a dark chapter in the history of the Catholic Church beyond Australia's borders, as you say. But do you think the Vatican is paying close attention to the Australian experience at the moment?

MARK COLERIDGE: Oh, I would say they are paying extremely close attention. I thought that before the meeting, but I thought it even more during and after the meeting.

I think, in fact, they are like the rest of us: on a steep learning curve. But they are paying very, very close attention to what's going on in Australia - and, indeed, in the English-speaking world, because the phenomenon of child sexual abuse isn't confined to the English-speaking world, obviously, but it's configured in a particular way and has a particular social location in the English-speaking world.

So Australia may be a long way from Rome in one sense, but in another sense it's not very far at all. And I think the people that I was meeting with in Rome are very alert to what's happening in Australia.

They are better informed, in fact, than I thought they may have been and they are following very closely developments here and they are anxious to help with developments here in any way possible.

THOMAS ORITI: Archbishop Coleridge, the seal of confession: it's been a key issue at the royal commission. What's your view on that? Should priests be legally bound to break that in the event that sexual abuse has been disclosed?

MARK COLERIDGE: Well, I don't think so, if we're talking about the sacramental moment; because at that point the seal is non-negotiable. But there are many other options beyond that. And again, an experienced and sensitive pastor can handle these situations in the sacrament, in all kinds of ways that wouldn't necessarily involve the breaking of the seal.

This is a complex discussion. We have got a long way to go with it. But I don't think that the seal itself, within the sacrament, is up for negotiation. But there is a great deal that can be negotiated beyond that.

THOMAS ORITI: Concentrating further on the response of the Catholic Church, a new company was established almost a year ago, called Catholic Professional Standards, to monitor and develop compliance with child protection safeguards. What's the status of that company at the moment?

MARK COLERIDGE: Well, it's a very important initiative. It's one of the most substantial things we have done in the wake of the royal commission.

Its task is, first of all, to establish nationally consistent standards. And the lack of those nationally consistent standards is something that has emerged in the royal commission and it's been profoundly unhelpful.

So first of all, to develop those standards; and then to monitor compliance with the standards. So in that sense it is a very significant step forwards.

Now, at the moment we have appointed a number of directors. We have appointed a number of members of the board.

We have established the company. I myself am one of the two bishop members of the company. And we are recruiting other members of the board. We have also recruited an executive director.

It's moving forward: perhaps not as quickly as some would like, but I'm afraid an initiative as large and as complex as this simply does take time.

But they have begun work. But when that work will show fruit publicly is harder to know: in my own view, as soon as possible, because the need is urgent.